


Cashing in His Chips

by matrixrefugee



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Twilight Zone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-28 02:11:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18202094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matrixrefugee/pseuds/matrixrefugee
Summary: Crossover with the classic Twilight Zone episode "Escape Clause", in which Jack discovers someone else who keeps cheating the reaper...





	Cashing in His Chips

**Author's Note:**

> Written for "fic_promptly" [Doctor Who, Captain Jack, Who Wants To Live Forever?](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/53774.html?thread=2304270&format=light#cmt2304270) Ended up as a crossover with the classic Twilight Zone episode ["Escape Clause"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_Clause). I tweaked the story a bit, stretching out the timeline and adding more humorously dark antics to the life and deaths of the delightfully annoying Mister Walter Boeteker.

Boeteker thought he spotted the interloper out of the corner of his eye, perched on a corner of the same rooftop. Perhaps he had grown paranoid: how often could he keep pulling these insurance fraud schemes and wrongful injury claims before someone got wind of what he had applied his unique skills toward. No doubt they had sicced their adjustors on him, and in time, they would trip him up.

No matter, he had to do it, had to follow through with the scheme before he lost his nerve or the idea lost its novelty. He stepped off the parapet of the roof, into the empty air.

He thought he saw the same tall figure, the same interloper in a long coat dive off after him. Were the adjustors arming themselves with parachutes, now that they had wind of him and his talents.

The thought went out of his head the moment he hit the pavement and blacked out...

...Moments later, Boeteker opened his eyes to find a figure kneeling over him, a dark-haired man with pale grey-blue eyes and a gleefully mocking smirk playing about his handsome face. Of course, he'd come back to find a matinee idol kneeling over him, and a military type, no less, to judge by the trenchcoat he wore. Just perfect, the government would get involved and send one of it's knuckle-dragging stooges to collect him. Impressive, if one thought about it: the military got its hands into his case, rather than the common, thick-headed, banana-fingered constabulary.

"Quite a merry chase you lead me one, but diving off a roof? There's a lot more creative tactics could've used," the dark gent teased.

"Who are you? If you've come to question me, there's nothing you could learn from me that the rags that pass as newspapers tout," Boeteker snapped.

"Captain Jack Harkness, at your service," the interloper said.

"And what could the military possibly want with me? Except for that time your lot tried to shanghai me and cart me off to Germany or Japan a few decades ago," Boeteker snapped.

"Not exactly with the military, or least not the U.S. military -- I did sign up with the RAF before us Yanks got over that little case of isolationism --: I'm with something a little more specialized and hard to find than that," Harkness replied, glancing at the shoulder of his greatcoat.

"And I take it you've been watching me like so many bored gossips with nothing better to do," Boeteker said, picking himself up, brushing the dust from his jacket. "Well, there's nothing more to see here."

Harkness rose with him and showed no sign of letting him alone. "Maybe the show's over, but I'm afraid I'm not exactly walking away alone afterward," he said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I've got some people who want to know what you've been up to for the past month or so."

"They may be interested, but I have better things to do with my unique ability," Boeteker said, shaking the man's hand off. "Unless you're with the police and it has to do with what happened to my wife, I have no use for you; I still wouldn't, even if you were."

"Good thing I'm not with the police," Harkness said. "Cashing out injury insurance claims? Clever, but I can think of some more lucrative ways to use your talents. Done it myself, but that's another story. Yours is more interesting right now."

"Perhaps a trade is in order, Mister Harkness," Boeteker replied.

"Make that Captain Harkness, and I'll consider the offer," Harkness cut in.

"Captain," Boeteker replied, though he suspected the man's title had not been earned through the usual channels. "I will tell you and your merry men about what's going on with me, on the condition that you tell me how you survived that jump from the same rooftop."

"Fair enough: and they're not just merry men I'm working with. Got a few women working with me as well," Harkness replied.

"And who would these personages be?"

"Torchwood."

"Never heard of them."

"Good to hear: they like it that way," Harkness replied, grinning and taking Boeteker's arm.


End file.
